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| A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus: The Roots of the Problem and the Person, Vol. 1 | 
 enlarge | Author: John P. Meier
Creator: Joel Peter Johnson
Publisher: Anchor Bible
Category: Book
List Price: $49.95
Buy Used: $7.85
You Save: $42.10 (84%)
New (3) Used (30) from $7.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 161036
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 6.2 x 1.6
ISBN: 0385264259
Dewey Decimal Number: 232.9
EAN: 9780385264259
ASIN: 0385264259
Publication Date: November 1, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Hardcover. Missing dust jacket. Slight cover wear. Has some highlighting. Volume 1. Ships the next business day, with tracking and delivery confirmation sent to your email.
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Product Description
In this definitive book on the real, historical Jesus, one of our foremost biblical scholars meticulously sifts the evidence of 2,000 years to portray neither a rural magician nor a figure of obvious power, but a marginal Jew.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Best of the genre November 11, 2008
This book is the first of a series from Meier that delves into The Historical Jesus. It is very well written and thought out and full of logical, interesting deductions, research and thought. The author is extremely knowledgeable in his subject and clearly reads Greek, Latin and Aramaic versions of the gospels.
This is one of the very few excellent books on the historical Jesus, a whole series, from a Roman Catholic Friar, and it is the best I've read from a believer. It is important to have a legitimate, faithful Roman Catholic perspective for a number of reasons that I won't go into.
It has some shortcomings, though. First off, it still fails to answer the most important, fundamental question involving The Historical Jesus, which is why do none of the Epistles, which were written prior to the gospels, contemplate Jesus as a contemporary human being (other than to repeat certain formulaic recitations, e.g. 'On the night before he died ...')? For a thorough understanding of this problem, see Alvar Ellegard: 'Jesus One Hundred Years Before Christ'. Elleguard comes up with an answer that doesn't really work but his exposition of the problem is supurb. Now, I'm a believer and I know why I believe they don't, but I am not aware of any scholarly work from an apologist that addresses the question. That question is the single most important question of Historical Jesus Christianity, as far as I'm concerned, and Fr. Meier skips it.
Another thing that bothers me is that Fr. Meier obviously believes in the existance of a missing 'Q' document, as do many other exegetes. He references it all the time as though the reader could go to the library and obtain it. But the reader cannot because it doesn't exist. Why doesn't Meier include a reconstruction of what he believes to be the Q document that he is referring to, as an appendix to the book so that one could follow his logic? I don't know what the Q document supposedly says or which construct of it he has in mind.
Finally, Meier doesn't go into dating any of the gospels, epistles or other important foundational documents he discusses. It is very important to do that.
All in all, a very good read.
 Excellent Scholarly Book October 6, 2008
This book written in 1991 is a great scholarly overview of the historical Jesus and what we can know about his life. Vol 2 discusses his ministry, Vol 3 his context and interactions. Meier is a very well respected scholar in this area. The footnotes are located at the end of the chapter for those interested but the text is very well written and easy for anyone to read. Great discerning, unbiased overview despite the fact that Meier is a catholic. A great start for learning about the historical Jesus. Also recommend Dunn's Jesus Remembered - but Dunn is a little more difficult to read for the layman but is more current.
Exhaustive but not Exhausting November 17, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have just finished reading Meier's fantastic first volume. I picked it up at my university library after hearing many great things about it and thought I would check it out.
This book, while scholarly, is extremely fun to read. Meier does not beat around the bush, but is extremely forward in his methodology and the meat of each chapter. He carefully examines all points, and even discusses some of the fringe scholar's findings, such as Barbara Thiering. It never gets dull as we uncover findings about this marginal Jew that influenced the world.
From my reading I did not feel like his Catholic background contributed to any flaws in the text. If you happen to be Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox he addresses subjects that would be important to them though. Such as Mary's perpetual virginity, which he discusses lucidly and with poise. Obviously it is a much later idea that was not held universally for the first four hundred years of Christianity, and therefore not essential for the Church.
But my one complaint is that the "footnotes" are endnotes, and it got annoying of having to flip back and forth while reading. Other than that this is a finely researched book, and is essential reading for anyone who wants to learn about Jesus, theist or naturalist. Especially if they desire to be informed on where mainstream Biblical Criticism is, because often the representatives of the "New Atheist" movement (Dawkins, etc) are poorly informed when it comes to Biblical Scholarship or Theology. And Meier's contribution is essential reading.
As an Eastern Orthodox Christian though, I would highly recommend this text to other Orthodox. I often find that because of Orthodoxy's mystical tendencies we often forget how human Jesus really was. Or even how Jewish he was.
I think like all things it is necessary to have balance, and the more we can learn from Jesus the better we can be as people. I think that in the current quest for the "historical" Jesus, all scholars have something to bring to the table, whether it be Wright, Borg, Meier, Crossan or Sanders. But of course, at the same time, this cannot obscure the living relationship that Christians have with Jesus, whether they fall to the Left or Right.
Hey guys! July 10, 2006
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
At this moment there are 18 reviews (now 19) on volume 1 but no one has reviewed book 2. If this was such a great read how come no comments on book 2? I note that this book has an Imprimature. This is a good sign!
The introduction is excellent and represents current thinking on historical scholarship.
I would also recommend James Dunn.
For Anyone Seriously Interested in Jesus... December 29, 2005
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
This is the best book on Biblical scholarship I have yet read. Everyone from Anne Rice to Harold Bloom cites John P. Meier as the foremost authority on the "historical Jesus." Meier, a Roman Catholic priest, begins his work by explaining that the "historical Jesus" is not the "real Jesus," and vice versa. One cannot write an accurate "biography" of Jesus (understood in its modern sense) because there is just too little information. What he can do however, is assess the information that we do have, and see what everyone - "Catholic, Protestant, Jew, and agnostic" - can agree on.
Make no mistake; this is a work of genuine scholarship by a university professor - not some book of pop pseudo-science or conspiracy theory, such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail. As such, the casual reader MAY find it a bit dry; it is heavily footnoted and Meier makes reference to all the previous researchers in the same field. However, if you are fascinated by the subject-matter (as I am) it is a genuine page-turner. Although it is listed as being 496 pages long, in reality it is much shorter than that as a lot of the book is taken up by supplementary material - such as footnotes - which I simply skipped.
This is the first volume of an ongoing series of books, and they arrive at an important time. As is often pointed out, most "scholarly" works on Jesus or Christianity (such as Albert Schweitzer's, or the recent disappointing work by Harold Bloom) approach the subject with an openly hostile attitude; they write from emotion and not from fact, rendering their "non-fictional" works unattractive and unconvincing. Now - with the Da Vinci Code movie opening shortly - people are willing to believe just about anything. How refreshing then is it for Meier to try to tackle the problem without seeking to AFFIRM OR DENY anyone's faith! The result is sure to offend fundamentalists and atheists alike, but it is surely a fascinating read.
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